Journalists in Odesa have acquired skills to investigate political finances

On September 27-29, the training on investigative tools in political finances was implemented in Odesa. The trainers – Oleksandr Kurbatov and Yulia Zaltsberh.

Participants learned the best practices in analysing political finance and mastered the methods of obtaining reliable information on electoral campaigns and political funding. Besides, they learned more about registers and databases, and how to identify politicians funding sources, and learned about typical schemes of violation of the law on party financing and holding elections.

The training was opened by a guest session hosted by Borys Babin – Professor, International Lawyer, Expert of the Ukrainian Maritime Independent Trade Union, Crimean Tatar Resource Centre, Research and Support of Indigenous Peoples of Crimea Foundation, Ad hoc expert of OSCE, Council of Europe and Minority Rights Group International, Government Commissioner for the European Court of Human Rights in 2015 and Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in 2017-2018.

What are the rules for investigative journalism? How to adhere to the standards of the profession and not to violate other people's personal space? What part of legislation should be introduced? These and other questions were answered by Borys Babin during his session.

Special attention during the training was paid to the role of journalists in detecting illegal schemes and the practice of analysing and verifying reports of parties and independent candidates.

During the three-day training program, the trainers provided participants with answers to the following and other questions:

- The purpose of the political funding reform in Ukraine;
- Who has the right to state funding for statutory activities;
- How to work with sources of information (cadastral maps, declarations, registers);
- How to identify the real sources of funding for a power official whose property value does not correspond to his/her official incomes;
- What financial reports on the use of electoral fund of a party or candidate exist, when and where they are published;
- Conducting investigations is dangerous work; types of observations: what they can be like, when one need to resort to them and when not; are there justified risks?
- What rules journalists should follow to avoid persecution and attacks.

Currently, participants of the training keep working on their own investigations, which were already partially presented on the final day of the event.

The training was implemented in a partnership with a German organization Media in Cooperation and Transition using the German Federal Foreign Office resources.